They hope someone will recognise their clothes, hairstyles or the way they walk and come forward with their details.

Chairman of Canterbury City Council’s Community Committee Cllr Neil Baker said: “We are proud of the district and we want it to remain a lovely place to live, work in and visit.

“The scourge of graffiti vandalism is a key issue for our residents and we need to tackle it.

“Not only is it making parts of the district look horrible, it is costing council taxpayers, residents and businesses an incredible amount of money to clean off only for it to return days later.

“This is money that could be used on worthwhile projects elsewhere.

“Why should people be forced into the expense and inconvenience of drastic measures like anti-graffiti paint or growing plants up their walls when they are the innocent victims and did not ask to be targeted?”

Anyone with information is asked to phone 01227 655027 or independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 or via their anonymous online form at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.

Releasing the footage/this image is part of a wide range of measures the city council is taking in an effort to tackle graffiti vandalism.

Canterbury City Council’s Head of Safer Neighbourhoods Doug Rattray said: “If a member of the public spots a vandal in action, please call the police who will coordinate with our CCTV control room in an effort to catch the offender.

“Alternatively, if you know who is responsible for causing so much misery in the city, please contact us in confidence.

“This particular group of offenders have a lot of tricks up their sleeve to evade detection so we really need the public’s help.”

A member of the control room team has been given the role of collating all of the information we receive around graffiti attacks including a comprehensive record of the tags used.

If they have the time and location of an incident, they will try and track down the relevant footage.

The city council is working with the Canterbury Connected Business Improvement District to clean off tags before they apply anti-graffiti paint to walls that are repeatedly targeted.

The BID is also encouraging its members to supply the city council with CCTV footage from their cameras so it can be analysed.

It is also talking to Kent Highways, utility companies like BT and public transport providers like Network Rail to encourage them to remove graffiti from their property or allow us to do and then recover the costs.

As a last resort, the council can force business owners to clean graffiti off of their premises by issuing a Community Protection Warning and then a Community Protection Notice. If they do not comply, the council will clean it and then recover the costs.

In February of this year, the city council launched its Love Where We Live campaign designed to persuade people not to daub graffiti, not to litter, not to flytip and to pick up after their dogs.